Polls coming, House adjourned sine die before schedule on request of parties

The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were on Thursday adjourned sine die, 13 days ahead of schedule, following requests from parties to cut short the Budget Session after essential business so that MPs can concentrate on election-related work in constituencies — ahead of the Assembly polls in four states and Puducherry.

The session, which started on January 29, was scheduled to go on till April 8.

The productivity of the Rajya Sabha during the Budget Session was about 90 per cent, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu Thursday told the upper house. “Against a total of 33 sittings scheduled, from January 29 to April 8, we are concluding it after having 23 sittings,” Naidu said, adding that productivity, including both parts of the Budget session, was 90 per cent.

The House conveyed best wishes to three retiring members from Kerala — Congress MP Vayalar Ravi, CPI (M) MP K K Ragesh and IUML MP Abdul Wahab.

Despite several Covid-related curbs and disruptions over a number of political issues, the Lok Sabha’s Budget Session concluded with 114 per cent productivity and MPs sitting till midnight on several days to make up for lost time.

“Shri Birla’s farsight helped in resolution of many complex issues. Despite disruptions, Lok Sabha achieved record productivity,” the Lok Sabha said in a statement.

Birla, who had recently tested positive for Covid, was not attending the House in the last week of the session. “Several important bills were also passed during the session. I could not be present in the House during the last days of the session due to health reasons. During that time the Panel of Chairpersons conducted the proceedings smoothly. Members also contributed fully to this. Thanks to all for this,” he wrote on Twitter.

In his observations before adjourning the proceedings sine die (indefinite period), Bhartruhari Mehtab, who was in the chair, wished Birla a speedy recovery and informed members that the Speaker was stable.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several cabinet ministers and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi were present in the House.

The first part of the Budget session, starting on January 29 with the President’s address to joint sitting of both Houses, saw a boycott by over 20 opposition parties in support of the protesting farmers.

The Union Budget was tabled on February 1 — 146 members participated in the discussion over 14 hours and 42 minutes. House proceedings were washed out for four consecutive days over the Opposition’s demand for separate discussion on farm issues.

To compensate, the House sat till midnight for several days. A total of 17 Bills were introduced and 18 were passed.

The second part of the Budget session which began on March 8 also saw repeated adjournments of House proceedings for the first few days as the Opposition protested over rise in fuel prices.

The main focus of the government in the second part of the session was to get the various demands for grants for the year 2021-22 passed along with the Finance Bill which carries various tax proposals.